At an impasse

The Anglican Church meets at their once a decade Lambeth Conference next month. Timothy Kincaid has been writing about religion and gay issues and is now of the opinion (which he says his colleagues may not share) that the Lambeth Conference will signal the split of the Anglican Church. The first sign will be that the conservative parts of the denomination will refuse to show up and take part.

This split is from sharply divergent views of Scripture and Christianity. The West sees it as a guide to know God and how to live, and to find kinship in social justice and humanitarian efforts. The Global South (developing nations) sees Christianity as God's divine commandments for a sinful world. And homosexuality magnifies that difference. The progressive West sees gays as valued children of God to be treated with love and equality. They are not about to apologize for their social justice and compassion. The Global South finds gays to be such sinners that not only must gays be denounced, but also those who accept gays. They refuse to allow Jesus to be just another "wise teacher." The denomination is at an impasse.

The split is being led by Peter Akinola, who is steadfast on Christian teachings about gays, but completely misses the point regarding Nigeria's treatment of the poor.

Kincaid thinks the split is best in the long run. The Episcopal and Anglican churches of America, Canada, and Britain will be free to follow their conscience and champion social justice causes, including full equality of gays. Alas, considering history, the bishops of the Global South will likely indulge in rampant corruption and use the power of the church to support some nasty dictatorial regimes throughout Africa. In addition, the full force of the church will fall on those that are gay, democratically inclined, or theologically liberal.

But in that long term there is hope that a freer West can lead the way to a recovery of brotherhood but without a return to legalism and dogmatism.